Iran is at least 5 years – but more likely 10 or more years – away from producing weapons-grade nuclear materials. Iran poses no imminent threat to the US, Israel, or its neighbors.
The Bush administration has already selected the military option and is moving to make it operational. The consequences of a military confrontation with Iran are global and nightmarish.
We should be pursuing multilateral negotiations and have missed key opportunities to do so – including not even responding to an Iranian offer to put recognition of Israel and suspension of its nuclear program on the table.
The threat assessment conducted by the intelligence agencies should be declassified. Let dissenters voice their opinions before Congress. We should have learned this lesson from the intelligence failure in Iraq.
The cheerleaders for this war are – you guessed it – Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. The Joint Chiefs are believed to be opposed to yet another catastrophic misadventure.
Some consequences of this insane déjà vu-like war would include: skyrocketing oil prices; Hezbollah attacks on Israel; Iranian attacks on US forces in Iraq; Iranian sabotage of pipelines in Iraq; Iran blocking Gulf oil flow; and threats to regional governments. If you like the war in Iraq, wait until you see the war in Iran. It will be a massive, global war.
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